Napa cabbage kimchi

Tongbaechu-kimchi 통배추김치

Hello everybody!
Today I’m going to show you how to make classic, spicy, traditional napa cabbage kimchi called tongbaechu-kimchi, a.k.a. baechu-kimchi or pogi-kimchi. But this dish is so common and iconic among Koreans that we simply call it “kimchi.” When people talk about kimchi, this is the dish they’re referring to, despite the fact that there are many kinds of kimchi in Korean cuisine, and many made with napa cabbage, too.

This kimchi uses the whole cabbage leaf, which makes it more labor-intensive than the other ones on my website, because you’ll need to take time to spread the spicy paste leaf by leaf. It’s more work, but this is the traditional style and if you can make this kind of kimchi well, you can consider yourself good at Korean cooking.

As I mention in the video, my mom used to make kimchi from 200 heads of cabbage! This was kimjang kimchi, made with her friends at the beginning of winter, and meant to last until the spring. 3 to 4 of her friends would come over and help her chop vegetables and most importantly, spread the paste on the leaves. This always needs to be done by hand. They would bring their own rubber gloves, and spend the day talking and laughing, and always had pollock stew or beef radish soup for lunch. They had a lot of fun!

At the end of the day they would take some kimchi home with them, but my mom would get all the rest, which lasted my whole family through the winter. And when my mom’s friends needed to make their winter kimchi, my mom brought her gloves over to their houses and helped them, like they did for her.

In the video I also show you how to ferment it in a traditional onggi. Using an onggi is not mandatory, but for those of you who have one already, this is how you use it! If you don’t have one, just use a BPA-free plastic container, or a glass container.

I answer many other frequently asked questions about kinchi-making in this video:

I hope you enjoy the recipe, and if you love kimchi, I encourage you to make your own kimchi at home. It’s delicious, easy, and a fun thing to do!

Directions

Prepare and salt the cabbage:

If the cabbage cores stick out too much, trim them off.

To split a cabbage in half without shredding the densely packed leaves inside, first cut a short slit in the base of the cabbage, enough to get a grip on either half, and then gently pull the halves apart so the cabbage splits open.

Cut a slit through the core of each half, 2 inches above the stem. You want the cabbage leaves to be loose but still attached to the core.

Dunk the halves in a large basin of water to get them wet. Sprinkle the salt between the leaves by lifting up every leaf and getting salt in there. Use more salt closer to the stems, where the leaves are thicker.

Let the cabbages rest for 2 hours. Turn over every 30 minutes, so they get well salted. From time to time you can ladle some of the salty water from the bottom of the basin over top of the cabbages if you want to.

After 2 hours, wash the cabbage halves a few times under cold running water. Giving them a good washing, to remove the salt and any dirt. As you wash, split the halves into quarters along the slits you cut into earlier. Cut off the cores, and put them in a strainer over a basin so they can drain well.

While the cabbage is salting for 2 hours, and in between the times you’re turning it over, you can make the porridge:

Combine the water and the sweet rice flour in a small pot. Mix well with a wooden spoon and let it cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes until it starts to bubble. Add the sugar and cook 1 more minute, stirring. Remove from the heat and let it cool off completely.

Pour cooled porridge into a large mixing bowl. Add garlic, ginger, onion, fish sauce, fermented salted shrimp, and hot pepper flakes. Mix well with the wooden spoon until the mixture turns into a thin paste.

Add the radish, carrot, and green onion, plus the Asian chives (or more green onions) and the water dropwort if you’re using them. Mix well.

Make kimchi:

Spread some kimchi paste on each cabbage leaf. When every leaf in a quarter is covered with paste, wrap it around itself into a small packet, and put into your jar, plastic container, or onggi.

Eat right away, or let it sit for a few days to ferment.

On fermentation:

The kimchi will start fermenting a day or two at room temperature, depending on the temperature and humidity of your room. The warmer and more humid it is, the faster the kimchi will ferment. Once it starts to ferment it will smell and taste sour, and pressing on the top of the kimchi with a spoon will release bubbles from beneath.

Once it starts to fermented, store in the refrigerator to use as needed. This slows down the fermentation process, which will make the kimchi more and more sour as time goes on.

637 Comments:

Hi Maangchi, I’m planning a Gimjang party as a housewarming theme for my new house. My guests can take the fresh kimchi home as gifts when they go home. When is the traditional time for Koreans to make Gimjang? Thanks!

“My guests can take the fresh kimchi home as gifts when they go home.” It sounds great! : )
Traditionally Gimjang (Winter kimchi) is made from November to December because the kimchi will be eaten during the cold winter.

Hi Maangchi, I’m trying to organise a kimchi-making party as a house-warming event to celebrate the purchase of a new house so my guests can take their fresh kimchi home. When do people in Korea get together to make make kim-jang? Thank you.

This comment is golden.
I made a batch where I think I didn’t wash the cabbage well enough and it was way salty.
I thought of trying to “correct” it but didn’t know what to do and I ended up throwing it in the compost.
Of course the radish soaks up the flavours and helps to balance it back out.

Hello, Maangchi i love korean food and it’s the tierd time i make the kimchi. But for this time i would like to try this method. Befor i had use the easy to make kimchi method.
I have one question in the vegan option you use miso. I have bothe the japanese miso but Doenjang is the same? Or is good to? Or is better japnese miso?

I love this recipe… I leave out the fish products, because my husband doesn’t like the taste. I put one Nashi pear in matchsticks, also, and some soy sauce.

We have soba noodle soup with kimchi and eggs, every morning for breakfast.
Lately I have made mak kimchi more often, because we use it quickly. I love to open the fridge and smell the sour kimchi after 3 days.

I always make the porridge, because the flavour is a bit different if it’s not there, and it doesn’t stick well.

I always bring some to the lady who sells me the gochugaru… she says she is lazy, and she just buys it, but she gets excited when I bring her some… she says I am like a Korean lady, getting happy about good kimchi. We have it for lunch together, when I bring it.

Hello Maangchi!
I wanted to make kimchi but my boyfriend bought the gochugaru in powder instead of flakes.. Is it a problem? Can I replace the hot pepper flakes by hot pepper powder in any receipe?
Thank you!

THANK YOU MAANGCHI! I made this recipe with green cabbage (Yangbaechu Kimchi) but with porridge unlike the ’emergency’ kimchi recipe. It is the best kimchi I have ever had, even better than what I have bought from the store (and so much cheaper)!

A tip for kimchi novices: when I first made my kimchi and ate it fresh, I thought there was something wrong because it seemed too bland compared to kimchi I have tasted in the past. I ended up adding WAY too much salt and ruined it! The second time around I followed the recipe closely and let it ferment out of the fridge for 2 full days. Wow… SO MUCH flavor comes from the fermenting! My second try turned out perfect. I recommend letting kimchi ferment first before adding more salt if you think it is bland. I also used a can of sardines instead of shrimp… sounds a bit gross maybe but the flavor turned out great.

Have made kimchi quite a few times in the past but about to try your recipe.
Do you know if the water dropwort is sometimes sold as “chinese celery” ?
It’s the only item I’m having trouble sourcing.
The online images of minari look the same as the “chinese celery” so I might just give it a try anyway.

Hello Maanghi – I made this recipe with abouut 7 pounds of cabbage. Unfortunately, the kimchi had a “chemical” taste and smell. I think it is possible that this taste is coming from a plastic cooler I used for salting the cabbage. It was clean but maybe a bad kind of plastic. Do you have any suggestions for what type of large (5 gallons or so) container to use for salting and mixing?

Hello Junnka and Sanne,
Thank you for the Lock & Lock suggestion. I am looking for a container of about 20 liters and it doesn’t look like they make one that big. Cambro makes a polycarbonate container of that size but it is quite expensive.

I had no idea that the HPL896 is that expensive in the US!
On amazon.de, it’s only 33.33 to less than 35 Euro (weak Euro, strong US-Dollar; therefore, about the same in your currency at the moment!) – free shipping in Germany. Shipping from here to the US is horrendously expensive!

Same question goes for Korea, but I don’t know the prices there… Meshil-pyeong from 25 to 30 litre are quite cheap there, though (man [10.000] won), I use those for mul-Kimchi and large amounts of maneul-jangajji.

The definition of ‘nice taste’ for Kimchi can vary greatly. Some people prefer them fresh, some people like me like them aged and sour. If you would like to keep the taste, you must try to minimize the exposure to air. It’s better to preserve them in large batch, in a single container and only open it when you need it. I normally take about a week’s worth every week.

I usually put all my kimchi in the fridge except for a little bit in a small container. I like fresh kimchi, so this way the kimchi in the fridge ferments slowly and stays fresh, while the smaller container ferments faster and gets sour. I use this sour kimchi for making things like kimchi jjigae where sour kimchi is better. Then, when the small container is empty, I fill it up again with kimchi from the big container. It takes a little management, but experiment and you’ll get the hang of it!

How do you know it’s fermented or not?
One or 2 days after, open the lid of the Kimchi container. You may see some bubbles with lots of liquids, or maybe sour smells. That means it’s already being fermented.

Hello maangchi.. I am your new friend.. Im looking for kimchi recipe and i find your brilliant video and recipes..
I have a question, Why we have to use rice flour paste? Is it gonna help the cabbage with the fermentation?

Porridge helps hot pepper flakes, fish sauce, garlic, ginger and all spices mix together. Otherwise, the kimchi paste will be too thick to put it between cabbage leaves easily. So you can use sweet pear juice instead of making porridge if you want. I sometimes use pear to make kimchi

Hi! New here, and loving it!! I’ve always wanted to make Kimchi so this is wonderful Thank you! :)
Although I do have a few questions. I was looking for Fish sauce online and came across 2 Korean types? One was made form (Myul Chi)? Anchovy and the other (Kanari)? Sand Lance.
And if Anyone could answer where I could buy Gochugaru online, I’d be very thank full Thank you :)

Hi:)
I had made my second batch of kimchi around one month ago and it has been stored in the refrigerator. I just found out that the leaves of the cabbage went very soft and the smell is quite bad…is this kimchi still okay? Can someone please reply me soon!!Thank you very muchh

Remove the uppermost layer, remove and toss moldy leaves, if any. No mold, no problem. This layer is still good for recipes that require “shin” (*very* well-aged) kimchi.
Submerge the deeper layers in their brine and see to it that they stay submerged!